Police are warning that scam artists are using mass media to perpetuate their crimes, one such ad unknowingly appearing recently in the Southern Standard.“What happened to one man here is he answered the ad and they immediately had him set up a Yahoo Messenger account,” said McMinnville Police detective Stuart Whitman.The man saw the ad in the Dec. 1 edition of the Southern Standard and answered it by going to the email address Timstegenga@live.com. It has since been learned the credit card used to make ad payment was fraudulently used.Whitman said the con appears to be based off-shore, making it nearly impossible to prosecute. “It’s like the cons where they send you a check and tell you to deposit it,” Whitman said.